New Blacks
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [S2 AU] Because Ruko couldn't stay in the system without changing. And Iona couldn't keep pushing without crumbling. And Mayu couldn't keep dreaming.


**A/N:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, d98 - write a fic that starts and ends with the same letter.

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 **New Blacks**

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One of those knowing Selector girls had to be Tama. One of these girls that wasn't quite who they were before, but she knows barely any of them. Just Yuzuki and Hitoe and she knows it's not Tama in Yuzuki's body now and Hitoe is still Hitoe. Everyone else though is fair game. Almost everyone, rather. Her own body's not it either because Tama's already slipped out of it and she's not quite sure what that means.

She must have won again, right? If she lost, she'd still be trapped in there, in an eternal nightmare until a second angel came, like with Hitoe. But then where is she? In a card? In a body? How far as the never-ending spiral sent her?

It didn't matter. Ruko would find her. Somehow.

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Mayu wouldn't be pleased, but she really couldn't give a damn what Mayu thought. She went as far as the rules let her go. Made all her Selectors lose even though she knew second hand the despair she'd doomed them too. She didn't care because it was easier to search like this, than with a human body. She remembered how constricted she'd been. How useless.

At least Iona had been good for something. Even if it had somewhat twisted her own wish.

They still fought. Again and again and it pissed Ruko off because the LRIG, or Selector as she sometimes became, was only in the way. It only wasted time when they clashed, time she could have used searching for Tama instead.

But like she searched for Tama, Iona searched for her – and Iona seemed to have the better luck.

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Yuzuki and Hitoe knew. Thanks to that, they never wound up fighting each other and that was a relief because Hitoe was at two losses and the only sorts of people Ruko couldn't sacrifice were her friends…and her brother and grandmother, perhaps, but neither of them really came into the equation. The LRIG in her body seemed grateful enough to have that sort of family and took care of things. Was happy to be doted on, eat cookies every other day and hang out with Hitoe and Hanayo and Kazuki because they all had appearances to keep up.

Though she wasn't a Selector any more. She didn't know about Hanayo, or Ruko's new look. Or about Tama. A waste of time on Ruko's part – except she kept her family happy and that was fine.

It left Ruko free to search for Tama with her friends.

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Ulith had tournaments, still. Ruko always made sure to go to those, and those were the only times she let her Selectors win because she needed to get all the way to the top, to beat down every opponent she faced and see if Tama was amongst them.

She wasn't. And then she'd lose the final battle and stand in front of Mayu again, cursing, because Mayu was lying. She had to be lying if Tama couldn't be found anywhere.

Except Mayu insisted she was telling the truth, and what could Ruko do but believe her?

And dive right back to the real world, to a new Selector, and start the process of searching for her all over again.

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Hitoe lost. Yuzuki was snatched away and wound up with a new Selector and Ruko decided to be mean and crush the Selector who dared defile her.

She crushed her, and then her own Selector and left them both in the depths of their despair.

Mayu was either nice or mean in making Hitoe her next Selector. And Ruko cursed her fate, because now she was in the same situation as Yuzuki, who couldn't sacrifice one of her best friends for a body and a chance to live again.

And Ruko didn't even need a body. It was easier to search for LRIGs and Selectors as an LRIG.

So she won for Hitoe, until and after she remembered. And the fever pitch of her search slowed down.

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Hitoe apologised, over and over for holding her up but it didn't matter, because Tama had been no closer before. Iona was pissed off, though. They could only fight once per Selector and LRIG pair and Ruko won that battle. So she had to wait her turn, until Hitoe transcended her Selector status or had it revoked for the third time.

But Ruko didn't plan to let either of those things happen.

Iona, of course, had no problem in pulling it off, ditching her Selector and finding a new one.

And then she set up a battle that none of them could win. Because her new LRIG was Yuzuki.

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Ruko cursed, and with tears streaming down her cheeks she fought her friend. It was worse than when they'd fought in Iona's tournament, when they'd fought for a chance to fix the games, before it wasn't possible anymore –

She needed to find Tama. Now.

But Tama wasn't there. Yuzuki was. And one of them had to win.

Of course, it was her. And, finally, Iona had her wish reversed.

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Iona cursed her. Of course, Iona cursed her. But Ruko couldn't care. She was relieved, in fact. Finally, she was free of her pestering, of those constant battles.

All that remained now was to find Tama.

All that remained now was to finish what they'd started together.

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Finally, Hitoe lost three times. It was inevitable, because she refused to accept the wish and now she'd sent both her friends to hell.

It was a necessary evil. She'd been an LRIG for too long, searched too long.

She met Mayu in the white room again, and the grey girl laughed.

'You've gone black.'

She looked at herself. She was always a black LRIG – black clothes, black hair – but now her entire body was black. It reminded her of Ulith. And Iona, once.

Mayu laughed again. 'Too bad, Kuro.'

Ruko didn't know who "Kuro" was, but she thought she heard Iona screaming in pain.

But there was no-one there.

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Mayu didn't let her out again. She was told to wait, and so impatiently she did.

And then Tama showed up. After a slew of other LRIGs, of course, including Yuzuki but Ruko couldn't speak to any of them. Until Tama turned up.

'Ruu?' But why did Tama sound so horrified.

Mayu grinned. 'Time for a new Selector battle.'

And Ruko didn't have a clue what she meant. Tama, however, did.

And launched an attack.

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Ruko and Tama fought.

It wasn't supposed to be like that… but it was.

Mayu called them Kuro and Shiro. Black and white. The two LRIGs that kickstarted it all. That would carry that legacy for infinity.

Except the battle between them couldn't last.

And Tama lost.

And vanished all over again with Ruko screaming her name.

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The truth of the tale was that Kuro and Shiro didn't exist except from Mayu's imagination, so they could only last so long. Ruko though… Ruko was real. Once a human, now forever an LRIG and, beyond that, an ultimate LRIG. She'd defeated Kuro. She'd become Kuro.

And now she'd defeated Shiro as well and there would be a new Shiro.

'Already set up,' said Mayu. 'And with that, I'll live forever!'

Except she never did see Mayu again.

Not that it mattered. The game went on without her. Ruko watched for a bit, and then plunged into the world again.

Mayu may have lied when she said Iona and Tama were gone.

And even if she hadn't…there was a new Shiro to look forward to.


End file.
